Just a small town girl living in a big city world.

Our Haunted Hike to Hana

Our trip to Hana was definitely one to remember. This post is a little lengthy, but I swear you’ll laugh (or at least smile a little on the inside).

Photo of the fabulous 5

The Prologue

It was a windy night at dusk. Darkness was approaching quickly and we decided it was a perfect time to embark on our 3 hour journey to Hana. There were five of us total, and we were going on a three day camping trip.

First stop, Walmart.

For essentials, of course. We spent a good amount of time here, and ended up packing the whole truck up in the parking lot as darkness took over and it began to rain. A sign of bad luck? Maybe. But we continued forth.

Second stop, Taco Bell.

Naturally. We had to fuel up before the trip, and Taco Bell seemed like a practical choice. However, hanger was creeping up on us, our GPS’s weren’t working, and it soon became a screaming match as we drove around in circles looking for that pink and purple bell from heaven. Bad omen number two? Quite possibly. Let the adventures continue.

Third stop, broken down in the darkness. Boom.

Heres an image of the road to Hana in the day time. Note: Our tire blowout was at night.

Bad luck for sure! We were hours into our trip, on the small, twisted, 1-lane road that was Hana when we heard a loud crack. The truck had already been rattling the whole way, so it was anybody’s guess as to what it could be. We quickly realized that it was a tire blowout and pulled over to assess the damage. It took all five of us to hold up iPhone flashlights and maneuver the new tire on, but we did it. All while stranded in the middle of what could be the start of a scary movie. Have you read my other blog posts? I think the theme here is that I often imagine my life is a movie. Idiosyncrasies are good…aren’t they?

A little excerpt of the good things, here.

As the trip went on, good things happened too. We went on the awesome Hana Hike to the famous waterfall and the 7 Sacred Pools. My favorite part was when we hiked off trail and found hidden waterfalls and cliff jumping.

Just a glimpse of the bamboo forest ❤

The bamboo forest was also incredible. And the view of sunset at Haleakala. But that’s all I need to say about that.

The good stuff is cool and all, but I know what you want. You want to hear the excitement. The less-than-ideal things. Lucky for you, our trip was filled with both. Night number two did not fail to bring the heat. Quite literally. Read on, my friend.

The explosion. I was shot.

Apparently the lids are not THAT easy to open…

Let me set the scene for you. Our tents were up, we had a small fire/charcoal pit going (after hours of a bleak, windy struggle) and we were posted up around a picnic table playing card games. Darkness was setting in again, so we were using our headlamps to illuminate our cards. We put a couple of cans in the “fire” to heat up for dinner, but someone *cough Briana cough* didn’t crack/dent her can. This is important for what comes next.

The tent and tree that would later on be dripping ravioli.

Back to the card games. Laughter was in the air, along with a little chill (as we were all wearing sweaters.) Out of the blue, we heard a loud BANG! I screamed at the top of my lungs, and we all took cover as we felt warm liquid splatter on us. I had been shot. At least this is what we all thought. We flashed our headlamps to the scene and realized that Briana’s ravioli can exploded. Everywhere. Red sauce covered our clothes, raviolis had splattered atop the whole tent…there were even raviolis dripping from the tree above. After a moment passed and we realized what had happened, we all rolled with laughter. It really was one of the funniest moments of my life. But maybe it was one of those “had to be there’s.”

Okay so maybe the title of this article was a bit misleading. Our trip to Hana was not haunted by the literal definition. However, it surely had it’s ups and downs. And I somehow got you to read all about it.

Lunching in Hana.

Have you ever had a memorable vacation full of things that went wrong? Share your memories in the comments below 🙂

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One comment

Not exactly a vacation story, but one Christmas my college (I went to college in my early 30’s) advertised that they were putting on a talk and slide presentation about the Big Star that guided shepherds and kings to the stable in which the baby Jesus lay; what possible configurations of stars could have occurred to create such a huge, lasting light. The college put this on every year in December, and I had always wanted to go, so this year I bought tickets for our family and your Grandpa Bill Schooley’s boss and his wife. On the appointed night, Grandpa, your dad (who was 9 or 10, I think), his two brothers, and I went over to the school and seated ourselves in the small planetarium, where we met Grandpa’s boss and his wife. To our surprise, we were the only attendees! Soon the professor who was giving the talk arrived, and greeted us in Spanish! It turned out that to honor the Latino population in the San Jose area, the school had decided to present this show in Spanish. Pity nobody who spoke Spanish showed up. The professor proceeded to deliver his presentation in Spanish anyway, regardless of the fact that his only audience were obviously Gringos who could not understand a word he said. It was okay, though, because our family tried to follow along and pretend that we were enjoying it, and the professor’s words were accompanied by the soft snoring of Grandpa’s boss, who slept and snored through the whole thing. – Grandma